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10 Dec 2016 2:13:48pm

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But Dan, don't you think Hitchen's famous 'I am your enemy'(sic) statements are going in that direction? of the faith you are describing? And you really seem to be trying to have your cake and eat it too. Stalinist and Chinese marxist pogroms 'don't count'? China continues to brutally oppress peaceful religious groups because they don't fit their atheist picture, and hence must be expunged. That's happening as we speak too, my friend, and on a large scale. More personally, I've been attacked (and I mean scary stuff, not just name-calling) for no other reason than my faith by atheists and sceptics - not even for something I have said or done, and certainly not for any attack or ill I have done to them. It happens - they feel threatened by faith, just as many relgious people feel threatened by science and free enquiry. Now, perhaps you're right - none of that behaviour is rational, but it's often done by people purporting to be rational. 'Rationality' provides the perfect cover, because none of us are really rational or capable of living as such.

In the end, people do bad things because of other things they care about more. faith may be one of those things, but it really isn't even close to one of the most common causes of evil behaviour - you might try greed, ignorance, self-interest, or simple retaliation. And most wars are fought for those same reasons, but later given moral legitimacy by religious or nationalistic claims. Again, like rationality before, that's just a veneer masking what's going on. people are often petty and hateful, and I'm sorry, that definately includes atheists and skeptics.